Ouch! Apologies for the short length this week — that’s what happens when you try to judge a visually oriented contest on an audio podcast. If you’re curious about who won our Watchmen art contest, all the details are in this thread. And check here for details on our “Best Lost Theories” giveaway. Enjoy the show, and don’t forget to Digg and review!

17 Responses to “ “The Geekbox: Episode 9”

I could care less about the finale and current impressions of BSG when the rest of the crew hasn’t actually watched the show. I have amazed they haven’t. They would love at least the first 2 seasons. It’s one of the best 2 seasons of any TV show ever. It was the best show chosen by Time in 05 for crying out loud! This isn’t just some nerd thing. I got into the show after season 2 as well. I heard about the show but I figured it was like Stargate or even Star Trek. I enjoy those shows, but they aren’t on par with something like Lost. But after hearing so much about it I was thinking about watching it. Then the South Park guys raved about it and I gave in. Glad i did as it’s right up there with Firefly, Buffy, Angel & Lost for me.

So, she’s using hyperbole to draw attention to her point — in carefully making a personal attack, dblade (and aping my post’s structure), you missed my point. Bent facts and hyperbole aren’t the same . Let’s take a second for wiki-education.

“Hyperbole (pronounced /ha??p??b?li/ hye-PER-buh-lee; “HYE-per-bowl” is a common mispronunciation) comes from ancient Greek “????????” (meaning excess or exaggeration) and is a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is rarely meant to be taken literally.”

Hey, that’s great. But what’s a good example?

“I could sleep for a year. (I could sleep for a long time.)”

Oh, that is a good example. But how is that directly applicable here?

“Hyperbole is used to create emphasis.”

Oh, if only there was some part of this definition that included the casual nature of a podcast recording…

“It is a literary device often used in poetry, and is frequently encountered in casual speech.”

Oh, well, great, thanks wikipedia! I guess all I can really say after that is Karen’s so-called “bent facts” “…could even be considered ‘exaggeration to the point of hyperbole,’ which would make the statement factly incorrect, but not factually untrue — as the facts it claims are the exaggerated ones, not the real ones.”

In short, while it might be nice to have another BSG watcher on the show, it would also be nice to have you actually read and reply to what I wrote — not throw out knockoff post structures, miss the point, and call it a day. That’s enough to fire what I understand is called “Geek Rage™.”

What you fail to notice is that she is using those slightly bent facts (and others) to set the tone for her criticism, swaying the others to view the show in a certain light. An informed counterpoint would be nice for a sense of balance, whether it is positive or negative.

Next week, why clichéd snark is still the weapon of the unimaginative.

The key thing about the facts Karen gets wrong about the BSG series is that they’re the utterly irrelevant facts — whether a few million or few hundred thousand is irrelevant to the conclusion of the series.

That could even be considered “exaggeration to the point of hyperbole,” which would make the statement factly incorrect, but not factually untrue — as the facts it claims are the exaggerated ones, not the real ones.

Next week, why acting isn’t lying, even though you’re saying things that aren’t true and trying to convince people they are.

Another enjoyable episode. The Geekbox has joined GeeksOn as my favorite geekcentric podcasts.
I do wish that someone else had actually watched Battlestar Galactica to offer another opinion/counterpoint to Karen’s review. Although I enjoy her commentary I find she isn’t very thorough in her viewing of the show and she often gets her facts wrong (millions of years ago?). Consider it Geek Rage™ but this can be a bit irritating, especially when there is no one to set the record straight.
Keep it Geek.

actually what karen didnt get into in her bsg review was at the end the whole point was its a cycle they couldnt break. with humanity recreating ai wich will eventually lead into the creation of cylons. in away its a good lead into the new caprica series

It’s really a shame that Andrew Fitch wasn’t here for this episode because I woke up with the urge to listen to somebody talk about “getting action” and then admit two sentences later that the phrase only means “talked to via e-mail.” And I wanted that discussion to last fifteen minutes.

I really Enjoy Geekbox the most out of the 1upocalyse spinoffs. I just like the conversational tone of it better than any of the other pod/vidcasts. I like the information from the other ones, but it feels like im hanging out with friends when I listen to the Geekbox.

never read any avengers stuff but dark avengers sounds fun, not gonna pick it up, but still.

didn’t mark millar write dark knight? which like made the premise of the movie dark knight? if he helped make the movie he can’t be half bad.

i read ultimate spider-man recently and i reckon it’s pretty good, except the black-cat bits. i like the mary-jane bits was pretty nice and with the inter-mingling with the other marvel people. especially the meet up in the mall? great.

is BSG actually good? i just know the 6 chick is hot. hahaha BSG started in a galaxy far far away a long long time ago…

this is turning into the non-gaming podcast. i remember ryan once saying his podcast would consist of “Eve online hi-jinx, DC’s comic 52, how to re-create the characters of the TV show Heroes in City of Heros, a special Furry corner and going over the last weeks episode of lost.”